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Some people think they
see contradictions in all parts of the Bible. Recently I attended a debate at a
local school where a Christian apologist debated an agnostic over the validity
of the resurrection of Christ. The agnostic (a graduate of Moody Bible
Institute, Wheaton College, and Princeton Theological Seminary) is a professor
of religion at the University of North Carolina. From what I understood, he
teaches graduate students to doubt that the Bible is an inspired, or at least
inerrant, book. His arguments against the resurrection boiled down to insisting
that the gospels had contradictions and therefore couldn’t be trusted. His
examples were generally that since the four gospels give four different views of
the life of Christ, they can’t possibly all be a correct view. Unfortunately,
no sufficient response was given concerning a harmony of the gospels.
I think there are also
many believers who see apparent contradictions in the Bible and make little or
no effort to solve them. Calvinism and Arminianism; the holiness and the love
of God; and law and grace are just a few that too many people don’t care to
grapple with. The one that affects us as much or more than any is the apparent
contradiction between justification and sanctification, the dilemma of complete
forgiveness of sin as opposed to the struggle against, and mortification of,
sin. Denominations have been formed from this apparent contradiction. Some
place too much sanctification in their justification, thus becoming antinomian
(Free Grace and Evangelical Free movements); some place too much justification
in their sanctification, thus becoming legalistic (Pentecostal and Holiness
movements).
Can we handle two truths
that seem to be conflicting but really aren’t? Do we know that our sins are
forgiven, removed as far as the east is from the west (Psa. 103:12), that He
will remember our sins against us no more (Isa. 43:25), that where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound (Rom. 5:20)? But do we also know that we will one
day stand at the Bema Seat of Christ to receive or lose rewards for things done
in our body, whether good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10), that we may be beguiled out of
our reward by false worship (Col. 2:18), that we may be saved so as by fire (by
the skin of our teeth!) for sexual sins done while a Christian (1 Cor. 3:15;
5:5)? The failure to understand and live with both the doctrine of
justification as well as sanctification makes for a lopsided Christian. Either
he will live in fear of losing his salvation, or he will live as an antinomian.
Neither would be the Christian the Bible describes.
The world will never
understand these intramural discussions among believers. They can think only
about scales of goodness and badness and spend their natural lives struggling
back and forth to no avail. But believers are made for the meat of the Word.
They have the mind of Christ and are obligated to study to show themselves
approved in these things before God (2 Tim. 2:15). To hide God-given truth in
the ground is to receive no reward at all.
Our present desire to do
away with doctrine, separation, and even holiness, is not healthy. I’ve never
been one for discarding denominational names because I believe a) the lost
person doesn’t care, and b) this is an honest way of informing people before
they come in of what you believe and how you operate. These names usually
describe a church’s polity or their conclusions about justification and
sanctification. In a biblically illiterate world, we need all the help we can
get in educating people to the great doctrines of the Scriptures.
There are really four
kinds of people found in the Bible if we count the lost and the saved. These
four, but especially the last two, show what we believe about salvation and
godliness.
1. The lost man with no regard for anything
religious.
We come across this man
often in the Bible. He is Cain or Korah, Sandballet or Tobiah, Simon the
sorcerer or Bar-Jesus. This is the spirit of antichrist that has always been
present in the world. They walk in the vanity
of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to
work all uncleanness with greediness (Eph. 4:17-19). They are to be
pitied more than feared. They are like blind men walking into things they do
not see. They are objects of God’s love, but have shunned His grace at every
turn. They become the enemies of the cross of Christ,
Whose end is destruction, whose God is their
belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things (Phil. 3:19).
2. The lost man who is religious.
The Bible is also full
of these men and women. Sometimes they are religious hypocrites such as
Jeroboam or Manasseh, the Pharisees and Sadducees, Judas and Alexander. Like
Simon, they are in the gall of bitterness, and
in the bond of iniquity (Acts 8:23) and not even Peter could pray in
their place before God.
Sometimes they are good
people in the natural sense, with moral and religious inclinations who would be
open to the gospel if they heard it. Jethro did not know the God of Moses but
loved the Hebrew people to whom his daughter had attached herself. Rahab was
quick to praise the Jewish spies in Jericho and to believe, as soon as she
understood that salvation was of the Jews. The Ethiopian Eunuch was a religious
man seeking answers to Biblical questions, but lost in his sin until an
evangelist could preach to him. Cornelius prayed and fasted and sought God’s
face without true knowledge until the time when God had His apostle prepared to
speak the gospel to Gentiles. Lydia went to prayer meeting regularly but was
lost until the Lord opened her heart to the message of His missionary. The
Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to see if what they were hearing squared
with their Scriptures, but were lost until Paul came and preached the true
gospel to them. Sergius Paulus was a prudent man who desired to hear the Word
of God, and though Elymas sought to turn him away from the faith, he believed,
being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
3. The saved man who is carnal.
It is possible for a
Christian to be carnal. Paul could not speak to the Corinthians in the way he
desired because of their carnality (1 Cor. 3:1-3). It kept them from even being
able to receive the milk of the Word that they might grow. The writer of
Hebrews scolded his readers for their lack of desire to go on to heavier
doctrine when they should have been teachers themselves. In more pointed
language John scolds the readers of his first epistle with severe consequences
for living in carnality: inability to have fellowship with God, lack of
assurance of salvation, lack of love for the brethren, and a lack of discernment
regarding false teachers who were already among them.
Carnality may come from
a lack of understanding about one’s position in Christ. Not knowing whether one
is saved or not will not bring victory in the Christian life. The helmet of
salvation is needed to keep the Christian soldier from ducking at every shot
fired by the enemy. Working to keep oneself saved is a discouraging
occupation.
Carnality may come from
a lack of time spent in God’s Word and prayer. The filling of the Spirit is
dependent on the Word of Christ dwelling in us richly in all wisdom (Col.
3:16). Fellowship with the Father and with the Son is maintained by prayer
because the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and His ears are opened to
their prayers (1 Pet. 3:12).
Carnality results from
trying to navigate this life with the self in control instead of God.
Sanctification is a work of God in our heart also. Our flesh does not have the
power in itself, even regenerated, to overcome the world. As we yield to the
Spirit of God, and as He teaches us through the Word of God, we grow strong in
the Lord and the power of His might.
Carnality also results
from thinking that all human effort to combat the flesh is unspiritual, that
striving against sin is somehow a lower role in life than should be desired.
But it is not. We are to be holy as He is holy, to put on armor that is made
for battle, to pull down strongholds of opposition, to press toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
A carnal believer is
still secure in Christ. Sin cannot destroy the work of justification done in
the heart. But the sinning believer appears the same as the lost man, since
salvation cannot be seen except by good works. Without those Christian graces,
you would not know that he is a believer except by his verbal testimony. The
Bema Seat of Christ alone will reveal the sin and carnality with which many
believers have lived.
4. The saved man who is spiritual.
The Christian is a
spiritual man as opposed to a natural man (1 Cor. 2:14-16). Before he was saved
he was by nature a child of wrath but now has been saved and changed by the
Spirit of God (Eph. 2:3-5). By “spiritual” we mean spiritually mature or strong
rather than weak (Rom. 15:1), spiritually mature rather than a babe in Christ (1
Cor. 3:1).
The Bible presents the
spiritually mature Christian as the normal Christian. He may be a new child in
Christ but knows full well his salvation, or a young man in Christ who is strong
and fighting the battles of faith, or a father among believers who has walked
with God from the beginning (1 John 2:12-14). This is the brother whom we are
to love and with whom we ought to desire fellowship (1 John 3:14-16). It
matters not whether the world of lost people love this man, since they did not
love his Lord either (John 15:18). He is the example to which every young
believer and every carnal believer should strive.
The spiritual Christian
knows that he is never above sin (1 John 1:10) and has a great respect for the
old nature that still resides in him. But this man has fought enough battles
with the flesh to know where his strengths and weaknesses lie and he has walked
enough years with his Lord to know where the victory comes from. He has lost
desire for earthly fame or reward but more and more looks not at things which
can be seen but things which cannot (2 Cor. 4:18). His wisdom is not from below
but from above which begins with purity, then peacefulness, then gentleness.
Others find he is easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without
partiality and hypocrisy (Jas. 3:17).
There is no lost person
who can imitate this man for long, no more than a sparrow can imitate an eagle
or a mouse a lion. His life has a certain attractiveness about it that causes
even the vilest of sinners to secretly desire its beauty. It has a certain
humbleness and meekness to it to encourage the strongest believer to hold fast
to his Lord. The spiritual man or woman is the real treasure in any culture.
And So . . . .
I am not and never have
been for laying down our weapons of doctrinal warfare. I am for fighting a good
fight and not a bitter fight, of speaking the truth in love. We know that a man
convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. And none of us like
hypocrites. For identification, fellowship, and participation in ministry, we
may at times seek for common denominators, but we don’t even know what those are
unless we are constantly striving for truth in every jot and tittle, nor would
we be safe in such an environment unless we were grounded and settled and not
moved about by every wind of doctrine.
Our road begins at its
broadest intersection of the great doctrines of justification and
sanctification. If we cannot navigate this cross-road, we will probably not be
headed out in the right direction. Once we settle this, we will enjoy our
journey through the highways and byways of God’s Word and our walk in the
Spirit. If we get a little lost, we will always be able to return to this place
and start again.
These things are not
mere curiosity for the Christian. They are his life and passion. We must
go and teach all nations . . . Baptizing them .
. . Teaching them to observe all things, And we can know that He is with
us, even unto the end of the world
(Matt. 28:19-20).
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